Ecology

Question 1

how an organism’s structure, physiology, and behavior meet the challenges posed by its environment

Answer 1

organismal ecology

Question 2

analyzes factors that affect population size and how and why it changes through time

Answer 2

population ecology

Question 3

examines how interactions between species, such as predation and competition, affect community structure and organization

Answer 3

community ecology

Question 4

emphasizes energy flow and chemical cycling between organisms and the environment

Answer 4

ecosystem ecology

Question 5

focuses on the factors controlling exchanges of energy, materials, and organisms across multiple ecosystems

Answer 5

landscape ecology

Question 6

examines how the regional exchange of energy and materials influences the functioning and distribution of organisms across the biosphere

Answer 6

global ecology

Question 7

advocates the protection of nature

Answer 7

environmentalism

Question 8

is not an advocate, just a study of the environment

Answer 8

ecology

Question 9

nonliving factors such as chemical and physical factors

Answer 9

abiotic factors

Question 10

living factors, such as all the organisms that are part of the individual’s environment

Answer 10

biotic factors

Question 11

the movement of individuals away from their area of origin of from centers of high population density

Answer 11

dispersal

Question 12

a narrow layer of abrupt temperature change that separates the more uniformly warm upper layer from more uniformly cold deeper waters

Answer 12

thermocline

Question 13

where the oxygenated water from a lake’s surface goes to the bottom and the nutrient rich water from the bottom to the surface

Answer 13

turnover

Question 14

lakes that are nutrient-poor and generally oxygen rich

Answer 14

oligotrophic lake

Question 15

a lake that’s nutrient-rich and often depleted of oxygen

Answer 15

eutrophic lake

Question 16

inundated by water at least some of the time

Answer 16

wetlands

Question 17

most prominent physical characteristic is their current

Answer 17

streams and rivers

Question 18

transition area b/t river and sea

Answer 18

estuary

Question 19

periodically submerged and exposed by the tides, twice daily on most marine shores

Answer 19

intertidal zones

Question 20

vast realm of open blue water, constantly mixed by wind-driven oceanic currents

Answer 20

ocean pelagic zone

Question 21

formed largely from the calcium carbonate skeletons of corals

Answer 21

coral reef

Question 22

consists of the seafloor below the surface waters of the coastal, or neritic, zone, and the offshore, pelagic zone

Answer 22

marine benthic zone

Question 23

number of individuals per unit area of volume

Answer 23

density

Question 24

the pattern of spacing among individuals within the boundaries of the population

Answer 24

dispersion

Question 25

used to estimate the size of wildlife populations

Answer 25

Mark-recapture method

Question 26

grouped together where food is abundant

Answer 26

clumped

Question 27

maintained by aggressive interactions between neighbors

Answer 27

uniform

Question 28

most plants use this pattern of dispersion

Answer 28

random

Question 29

study of the vital statistics of populations and how they change over time

Answer 29

demography

Question 30

age specific summaries of the survival pattern of a population

Answer 30

life tables

Question 31

used to represent the data in a life table

Answer 31

survivorship curve

Question 32

occurs when the per capita birth and death rates are equal

Answer 32

zero population growth

Question 33

aka geometric population growth, all of the population has access to abundant food and is free to reproduce at its physiological capacity, J-shaped curve

Answer 33

exponential population growth

Question 34

the maximum population size that a particular environment can sustain

Answer 34

carrying capacity

Question 35

the per capita rate of increase, approaches zero as the carrying capacity is reached

Answer 35

logistic population growth

Question 36

study that focuses on the complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors that cause variation in the size of populations

Answer 36

population dynamics

Question 37

formed when a number of local populations are linked and are influenced by immigration and emigration

Answer 37

metapopulation

Question 38

concept that summarizes the aggregate land and water area required by each person, city, or nation to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb all the waste it generates; how humans affect the world biologically

Answer 38

ecological footprint

Question 39

camouflage, makes prey hard to see

Answer 39

cryptic coloration

Question 40

warning coloration

Answer 40

aposematic coloration

Question 41

harmless species mimic an unpalatable or harmful model

Answer 41

Batesian mimicry

Question 42

two or more unpalatable species resemble each other

Answer 42

mullerian mimicry

Question 43

where an organism eats a plant or alga, +/-

Answer 43

herbivory

Question 44

when two or more species live in direct and intimate contact with one another

Answer 44

symbiosis

Question 45

scientific study of the interactions between organisms and the environment

Answer 45

ecology

Question 46

a parasite obtains nourishment from its host, +/-

Answer 46

parasitism

Question 47

interactions between species benefit both participants, +/+

Answer 47

mutualism

Question 48

only one member appears to benefit from the interaction, +/0

Answer 48

commensalism

Question 49

competition

Answer 49

-/-

Question 50

species in a community that are the most abundant or have the highest biomass

Answer 50

dominant species

Question 51

organisms (typically introduced by humans) that take hold outside their native range

Answer 51

invasive species

Question 52

exert strong control on community structure because of their pivotal ecological roles

Answer 52

keystone species

Question 53

when an area that is disturbed and colonized by a variety of species is replaced by another species in a virtually lifeless area where soil has not yet formed (volcanic island)

Answer 53

primary succession

Question 54

occurs when an existing community has been cleared by some disturbance that leaves the soil intact (fire)

Answer 54

secondary succession

Question 55

disease causing microorganisms that are transferred from other animals to humans either by direct contact or by means of an intermediate species

Answer 55

zoonotic pathogens

Question 56

efforts to conserve biological diversity at all levels

Answer 56

conservation biology

Question 57

applies ecological principles to return ecosystems that have been disturbed by human activity to a condition as similar as possible to their natural state

Answer 57

restoration ecology

Question 58

one that is "in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range"

Answer 58

endangered species

Question 59

those that are considered likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future

Answer 59

threatened species